The procurement is specifically looking to develop Asgard’s decision-making capabilities.  

The UK has opened project Asgard – the British Army's future digital targeting web system – to suppliers, with GBP180 million available over the next four years.  

Sitting under the ‘Defence and Security Open Framework’, a new commercial framework, suppliers are encouraged to submit their proposals to meet the ‘decide’ aspect of Asgard’s targeting cycle, according to a procurement notice published on 19 August. 

Asgard is a major GBP1 billion programme within the British Army that aims to help soldiers find and track threats at pace, by ‘sensing’ a target, ‘deciding’ whether to strike, and then delivering an ‘effect’.  

It was first announced in the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) in an effort to make the force 10 times more lethal.  

Developing the decision-making aspect will support Asgard’s goal of “reinventing, and transforming, how land forces deliver operational decision-support and decision-making software” via the use of AI or machine learning (ML) technologies, the MoD said. 

This procurement is particularly suitable for smaller companies, the MoD added.  

The fact this is an open framework is also significant, as it will see the project delivered in smaller, successive frameworks that allow for the reopening of supplier lists under broadly the same terms.  

“This contrasts with traditional 'closed' frameworks where after a single competition process suppliers are 'locked' in or out of a framework for its full duration”, the MoD said.  

How is the procurement structured? 

The MoD is seeking to deliver this project in five lots, each focused on improving Asgard’s decision-making in a different way. 

The first lot looks to procure data integration capabilities that go beyond traditional methods, with the MoD asking that solutions offer orchestration tools and metadata-driven management, among other things. 

“This lot covers higher-level functions like data validation, cataloguing, and lineage tracking. It will form the backbone for delivering trusted datasets supporting critical operations”, the MoD said.  

The second lot is looking for ‘accelerators’ to improve decision-making. Solutions sought by the MoD centre around AI and ML, including model development, ML operations, synthetic data usage, and inference.  

To allow end-users to deploy these capabilities, applications are required. Such applications are the focus of the third lot, which will support the development and management of tools to deploy Asgard.  

Lot four focuses on computing and local storage, while the final lot centres on services. The former seeks suppliers to help facilitate the local, real-time low latency storage required to deliver Asgard, while the latter seeks a provider to help facilitate technology adoption and integration across all other lots, similar to that of a systems integrator.